as we sit here this morning aboard the uss macon island, in san francisco bay, looking out to the pacific, it is easy to believe that the united states is, in fact, a pacific power and that to keep it that way we will maintain the best damn navy in the world. thank you very much. (applause)speaker .... >> now i'm going to introduce our next speaker, major general melvin spee splt e i've known melvin for a number of years, obviously we served together in the marine corps. i can tell you he's been with fleet week for 3 years now and the one thing about mel, he's got a lot of ideas and he accepts no as an interim answer because a lot of things that he wanted to do to make fleet week better originally the answer from authorities was no. and he made some amazing things happen just through his will. a commander can will things to happen. and i really want to thank you, mel, for that whole peer to peer medical exchange was your idea and it was just a huge hit and i thank you so much for that. he's offered to be the pifrplg hitter for admiral roughhead who was captured back in massachusetts and c